Improved table-cutlery



Nrrnn STATES? .IDATEN'r OFFICE.

MARVIN SMITH, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVED TABLE-CUTLERY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 5.527. dated October .3, 1848.,

To all wwm it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARVIN SMITH, of Meriden, county of New Haven, and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Table-Cutlery; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and eXact description.

My improvement in table-cutlery consists in placing t-he bolster that serves as a fulcrum across which the handle is made to balance the blade of the knife or fork from one-half of an inch to two inches from the end of the handle connected with the shoulder, as hereinafter described, and in place of so much of the bladeImake a shaft or shank with thebolster or fulcruin between the shank and the blade, and both bolster and shank, (represented at A and B, Figs. l and 2, in accompanying drawings.) 'For more particular description, Figure l represents at C the back of atable-knife blade I, the bolster or fulcruln; A,the shaft or shank ,e and D the handle, with the raised edge of the bolster B and the end of the handle at d resting upon the table or plane represented by the line e e, by which arrangement the fulcrum is placed nearer the point of the blade, and additional weight being obtained as a counterbalance causes the blade to be elevated above the table, as at f. Fig. 2 represents a side view of a table-knife; C, the blade, B, the bolster or fulcruin; A, the shaft or shank; D, the handle; a, the neck; b, the shoulder, whichIinake at the end of the shank, connected with the handle, of any convenient form, corresponding in size with and to fit the end of the handle, as at b, from which shoulder is extended a stem, or tang, as it is called, and repre sented by dotted lines, to which stem or tang the handle, made of any suitable material, is

firmly cemented against the shoulder.

The mode hitherto of making table-cutlery known as balanced has been to place the bolster or fulcrum at the end of the handle and joined to it by means of a shoulder formed of one of the sides of the bolster, which arrangement requires the handle to be loaded with lead to give it sufficient weight, thereby causing it to crack and come off, and also to grind the blade so thin as to render it in a measure useless for the purpose intended.

The design of myimprovement is to obviate the objections herein named, to improve the quality and appearance without impairing the article for use.

I do not confine or limit my invention to any particular form, length, or size of the handle,

' shank, bolster, or blade, nor to any particular joined to the handle by means lof the shoulder formed of one of its sides, as before mentioned. VVhatI claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The making of table knives and forks with the bolster between the blade of the knife (or prongs of the fork) and the shaft vor shank above described.

2. Placing thebolster or fnlcrnm across which the weight of the handle causes the blade of the knife (or prongs of the fork) to be elevated above the table nearer to the point of the knife or fork and farther from the handle, thereby saving the loading ofthe handle and other con sequent injury.

MARVIN SMITH.

Vitnesses: l

WARD Con, y JOEL H. GUY. 

